Edited by Joel Williams
This week’s tracker includes a look at the controversy over Florida's Congressional redistricting.

Weekly highlight

Last week, no state adjourned its legislative session. Here is a brief look at issues making headlines across the country:

Florida: A federal circuit judge has ruled that the Florida State Legislature acted illegally in passing new congressional district lines after the 2010 census. Several groups including the League of Women Voters and Common Cause filed suit in response to the map adopted in 2012, arguing that two districts violate a 2010 constitutional amendment banning gerrymandering due to the involvement of outside Republican consultants. Florida is a Republican state government trifecta, and of its 27-member congressional delegation, 17 are Republicans.[1] In last Thursday's decision following a 12-day trial, Terry Lewis stated that "Republican political consultants or operatives... made a mockery of the Legislature’s proclaimed transparency and open process of redistricting by doing all of this in the shadow of that process, utilizing the access it gave them to the decision makers, but going to great lengths to conceal from the public their plan and their participation in it."[2] The 5th District is represented by Corrine Brown (D), while the 10th District is represented by Daniel Webster (R); surrounding districts may also need to be withdrawn as a result of the required changes.[3] Brown's majority-minority district, running from Jacksonville to Orlando, was the subject of much criticism when the map was drawn; at trial, the respondents argued that it was drawn in a way to avoid a challenge under the Voting Rights Act and the petitioners claimed it was drawn to isolate Democratic voters for the benefit of the GOP in nearby districts.[4] Much of the redistricting record was discarded by the legislature; Lewis noted that there was no obligation to maintain a record of the redistricting process, but questioned the motive behind the move.[5] The matter is expected to be appealed, meaning that this year's U.S. House elections will likely continue as planned, as Lewis did not state a deadline for drawing a new map.[1]

Pennsylvania: On July 10, 2014, Gov. Tom Corbett (R) signed the state's $29.1 billion budget, ten days after the deadline had passed. Corbett refused to sign the budget before the midnight deadline on June 30 because the legislature failed to overhaul the state's pension system. Corbett signed the budget, but used his line-item veto power to cut $65 million in appropriations and another $7.2 million in earmarks from the legislature's budget.[6][7] Facing a massive $1.5 billion deficit, Corbett did not appreciate that the legislature chose to increase it's own budget while refusing to act on pension reform. Corbett has not yet called for a special session but has said, "Pennsylvania's legislature is a full-time legislature. The General Assembly left Harrisburg earlier this month with unfinished business. They need to come back and enact pension reform."[8]Senate President Pro TemJoe Scarnati (R), State Senate Majority LeaderDominic Pileggi (R), Senate Appropriations chairmanJake Corman (R) and Senate Republican WhipPat Browne (R) said in a joint statement, "While we share the desire to enact statewide pension reform, linking pension reform to punitive program cuts is not a successful strategy."[8] Staff in the Pennsylvania General Assembly are investigating whether the Pennsylvania Constitution allows for the use of the line-item veto within the fiscal code, as Corbett did in this case. State House Majority LeaderMike Turzai (R) said that the House will attempt to pass pension reform when it returns to session on August 4.[9]

Regular sessions

Currently 3 out of 50state legislatures are meeting in regular session. One state, Ohio, is in Skeleton Session. Skeleton Session typically includes very short nonvoting sessions instead of regular sessions with a full chamber.[10]

The Kansas, Minnesota, New Mexico and South Carolina senates also typically hold elections in even years. However, senators are elected to 4-year terms in those states and those will not be up for election again until 2016.

1,097 of the country's 1,972 state senate seats are up for re-election in November 2014, and 4,958 of the country's 5,411 state house seats are up for re-election. Altogether, 6,055 of the country's 7,383 state legislative seats are up for re-election on November 4, 2014.

Primary Information

The state legislative filing deadlines and primary dates are as follows:

Note: Ballot access is a complicated issue. The dates in the table below are primarily for candidates filing for access to the primary. For more detailed information about each state's qualification requirements -- including all relevant ballot access dates for the primary and general election -- click to our detailed pages in the state column.